


Space to Breathe

by swiftishere



Series: MSA One-Shots [40]
Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Immediately Post-Canon, Post-Canon, but like he deserves it, discussions of trauma, in which everyone (mostly lewis) begs arthur to think about himself like at all, mystery's done some shit y'all, this fic isn't particularly nice to him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-22 02:01:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30031338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swiftishere/pseuds/swiftishere
Summary: It's completely understandable that everyone, especially Arthur, would be a little high-strung after what happened last night. After almost getting killed, finding out Lewis was deadandhated him, almost getting killedagain, and then finding out the full story of the cave incident...It seems like more than that, though. When Lewis asks, he admits there's something very specific that's stressing him out.
Relationships: Arthur & Lewis & Vivi (Mystery Skulls Animated), Arthur & Lewis (Mystery Skulls Animated), Arthur & Mystery (Mystery Skulls Animated)
Series: MSA One-Shots [40]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1440190
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27





	Space to Breathe

**Author's Note:**

> y'know what? arthur's trauma is fully deserved and he's under no obligation to "get over it" for mystery's sake. in this essay i will

It’s the morning after everything happened at Kingsmen Mechanics. Things are quiet now. Arthur and Lance are both asleep in their rooms. Vivi’s passed out on the couch, and Mystery is settled into a corner, asleep on a blanket. In a different corner of the living room, Lewis drifts curled up, not truly asleep but not really awake, either. 

He stirs when he feels something shift, and then Arthur comes into the room. He’s trembling slightly, his hand pressed against the space between his shoulder and neck in what’s becoming a familiar nervous habit. He glances around as he enters like he’s worried about waking somebody else up. 

Unfortunately, Vivi also manages to detect his presence – Lewis has to wonder if she ever really fell asleep – and shifts upright, running a hand through her hair. “Oh, hey, Arthur. Mm… what’dya want?” 

“Just- uh- j-just came in to- to-g- to get a drink.” 

Lewis frowns, finally uncurling all the way and standing up. His stammer is stronger than normal, his voice shaking and cracked – _something’s_ not right. He looks almost panicked, too. 

“You sure?” 

“Y-yeah.” 

“Arthur, seriously. You look like…” it takes Vivi a moment to think of a good analogy. “You look like you’re gonna shatter if someone breathes on you too hard.” 

He shakes his head, the movement too twitchy to be at all convincing. “S-s-seriously, I- I’m- I’m f-fine.” 

“No, come on. It’s totally reasonable to be upset! After last night-? But if you tell me what’s going on, I can _help_ -“ 

“I’m _fine!”_ he snaps, shouting her down despite the crack in his voice. “Just- st-stop. I’m jus- ju- just _tired_ , th- is all.” 

“Is it Lewis? If-“ 

He backs up abruptly, spinning and walking out of the room. 

Vivi and Lewis exchange a look. 

There's a pit of worry growing in Lewis’s stomach. _Is_ it him? It's perfectly understandable that Arthur might not be comfortable with- with _him_ , not after he’d tried to kill him so many times, nearly _succeeded_ , and given that he barely even _looks_ like himself anymore. But… he’d said it was fine, and he’d sounded so honest – surely he couldn’t lie _that_ well, not if he was _this_ scared, right? Lewis knows him well enough to be able to tell – right? 

After answers, or maybe reassurance, he stands and follows his path out of the room. 

He finds Arthur in his room, sitting on the bed, glaring at the wall. At a glance he just looks angry, but Lewis knows even before he looks closer that he’s not – he almost never is. And sure enough, there are tear-tracks running down his cheeks and his breathing is shaky and uneven. 

He knocks on the doorframe, and Arthur’s head snaps up, brow unfurrowing into confusion when he sees him. 

“Arthur, can… can we please talk? About… whatever’s bothering you?” Arthur inhales, but Lewis interrupts him. “Even if it’s nothing.” 

His expression darkens again, and he shifts a little on the bed, moving closer to the headboard. “F-f- _fine_. Come in an-and close the door.” 

He does so, carefully watching Arthur for cues as he sits down opposite him on the bed. 

“You’re not gonna t-t-tell anyone, ri- r-right?” 

Lewis can’t answer the question honestly, but Arthur seems to understand that when he meets his eyes. He sighs and looks down at his knees. “It’s… it’s Mys- m- Mystery.” 

_Oh_. 

Lewis silently replays a scene from last night in his head. After Mystery had explained everything – and admitted to keeping it all secret – Vivi had been furious. So had Lewis and Lance, to some extent, but Vivi was the angriest. She’d defended him, comforted him when Arthur was afraid of him and hurt his feelings, went head-to-head with a tree demon to protect him – and he’d never even bothered to tell her the _truth?_ About _anything?_

He’d let everyone think Arthur’s fear of him was irrational, that Lewis’s disappearance was _just a disappearance_ , watched Vivi struggle with her memory loss and said _nothing?_ He stayed silent while Arthur tore himself apart searching for someone he _knew_ was dead? He _knew who Lewis was_ – and knew _why he was chasing them –_ and said **_nothing!_ **He still called himself their _protector_ , even as he hid the truth from them! 

And that wasn’t even counting that he knew full well why the tree monster was after him, and that he honestly should have _expected this_ , and knew that she wasn’t _evil_ she was just _upset_ – and he _still_ pulled Vivi out of the van and silently watched as the two of them fought each other, each not understanding what the other was thinking, and only stepped in when Vivi was about to _die_. 

The only one who hadn’t agreed with the others, also the one who had the _most right_ to be angry, was Arthur. Even with a shaking hand – that they’d all attributed to exhaustion and injury at the time – he’d reached between all the shouting and argued _against_ them. Mystery was just doing what he thought was best, he said. He was trying to help everyone. He wasn’t omniscient or all-powerful and besides he was _hurt_ , couldn’t they just _leave this_ until he was healed? 

Vivi fell silent at that – just as she had earlier, when Arthur was defending Lewis. She couldn’t find the words to keep arguing with him. The same exhaustion that was making her anger so hot made it impossible to debate rationally, so she’d given it up and warned Mystery to _stay on the couch_ while everyone else went to bed. 

And now Lewis knows that after defending him against his friends, Arthur went to bed and probably laid awake, tense and terrified, precisely _because_ he’d let one of his biggest sources of trauma sleep _right outside his room_. Right after the events of last night, Mystery’s possession and sudden rampage, opened that trauma wide up. He tries and fails to imagine how he’d feel if Arthur had, of his own free will, instead of just pushing him off a cliff, taken a weapon and violently cut him apart. And then he watched him do something very similar the night before he returned to the group. The only emotion he can muster is a gut-wrenching _fear_. 

He’s been silent for too long, and Arthur starts talking again, pressing his hand against his collar between his shoulder and neck. “I mean- I- I _know_ it’s it- itr-r- ira- st- _stupid_ , but I don’t- I can’t- get myself to, t-to _believe_ it, and I’m tr- _trying,_ I don’t- I d-don’t want him to-“ 

“Arthur,” he says sternly, and immediately regrets it when Arthur shrinks back, shoulders tensing. “It’s not irrational. It’s not _stupid._ No amount of _good intentions_ erases the fact that he _attacked_ you and _seriously hurt you,_ and then-“ he takes a breath before he starts ranting. “And last night, he very nearly did the same thing again. You deserve to be afraid of him." 

“But it- it d-doesn’t mean I get to ki- kick him _out!”_

“This is _your_ house! And besides – I think _all of us_ care more about you feeling safe than about Mystery’s feelings getting hurt.” 

“I… but…” 

“We’re all upset with him too, you know. And he’ll be fine if he leaves. It’s not like he has nowhere else to go.” He tilts his head slightly. “Be honest. Would you be more relaxed if he wasn’t here? Not just out in the parking lot – if he _left_.” 

Arthur stares at the blankets for a long while, apparently thinking. He nods. “…yeah.” 

“Good. Then he’s gone.” Lewis almost reaches out and takes his hand, but second-guesses himself at the last moment. He stands and walks to the door. 

Vivi’s still in the living room, draped over the back of the couch and looking mostly asleep. He feels bad about disturbing her – but he knows she’ll agree that this is more important than a few minutes of sleep. 

She picks her head up when he enters the room, anyway. “Mm- Lew… is. Did you… talk to him?” 

“Yeah.” He walks a little closer, and she doesn’t stop him, just blinks the sleep from her eyes. “It’s… it’s Mystery.” 

She huffs at that, sitting up a little more. “Of _course_ it is!” 

“What’s me?” The dog – _not a dog_ – in question is awake now, stretching his paws out and yawning, unconcerned with the bandages still wrapped around his midsection. 

“He’s really freaked out, huh?” 

“Of course he is.” 

“You know, I’ve been wanting to do this.” She rolls to her feet and puts her hands on her hips, glaring down. “Mystery! _Out._ ” 

He bristles. “ _Excuse me?”_

“You heard me! Get _out._ You’re not welcome here. Find somewhere else to lick your wounds.” She points sharply at the door. 

“You forget that Arthur argued _against_ you when you tried this last night! I will not-“ 

“Oh, don’t you dare play _that_ card, you _know_ what he’s like and you _know_ that’s a bullshit argument. Get _out_.” 

“And what would you have me do? Go and leave you undefended? What if-“ 

Vivi’s fist slams down on the armrest. “ _No!_ Shut the _fuck up!_ You don’t get to talk about _protecting_ us. You have lost that fucking privilege! After _everything_ you’ve done- or, excuse me, _haven’t done?_ You are _not_ our _protector_. You haven’t protected _shit_ in _years_. That role is not yours to claim anymore.” 

He falls silent, staring at her. She- doesn’t _relax_ , but she stands a little taller, still glaring down at him. 

“You can leave now, or I can go wake up Lance. Your choice.” 

He folds his ears tightly back and picks himself up, careful not to pull at the bandages. “…Fine.” 

She has to open the door for him. When he's gone and the door falls back into the frame, the little bell above it chiming, she sighs and leans against the wall, putting her face in her arm. 

“I still can’t _believe_ I tried to defend him. While he just _watched_.” 

Lewis wants nothing more than to comfort her, to go and reassure her that it wasn’t her fault for believing him, for not realizing how much he’d lied about what he was – but he hesitates. It isn't his place. This is his fault too, for dragging Arthur into the truck and leaving her to fight the tree monster alone. 

Eventually, he speaks up. “I… can go tell Arthur he’s gone.” 

She nods. “Yeah, sure, okay. I’m gonna… go lie down again.” 

He doesn’t have to go far, it turns out. Arthur’s hovering in the doorway between the hall and the living room, rubbing his shoulder and looking… significantly less panicked, but still worried and uncertain. 

“You- you d-didn’t have to _yell_ ,” he says when he realizes they’re looking at him. 

“Yeah, well, I wanted to. He earned that.” 

He swallows hard, taking a step back. 

“You wanna come sit down?” Vivi asks, pointing to the couch. 

“Actually, I- uh- I’d rather go- lie down- in- in bed.” He hesitates for a moment, looking between the two of them, and then his gaze settles on Lewis as he asks, “do… you guys- can- uh- d’you wanna… come too?” 

“Is that a genuine offer?” Vivi says, pausing in her slow descent onto the couch. “Because, yeah, I do.” 

Any question as to whether the offer was genuine is answered when she says that and Arthur relaxes, shoulders slumping out of their tense posture. “‘course it- it was.” 

Lewis follows them cautiously, still unsure if he’s really included. Halfway there, he can’t resist calling out, “Arthur?” 

He turns around to look at him, tilting his head. He still looks exhausted and twitchy, but it’s miles better than he was doing a few minutes ago. 

“I… be honest, please. I… I have plenty of other places to go, so… do you want me to leave, too?” 

He’s about to continue, nerves making him ramble, but Arthur closes the distance between them and snags his sleeve cuff, meeting his eyes. “Look- Lew, I- I know- I probably s-s-seem… still, uh, ne-t- nervous, but- I’d be _more_ freaked out if- if you… left.” His eyes are shiny, and his voice breaks on the final sentence, “I… I don’t want you to disappear again.” 

_Oh._

He can’t help but think, as Arthur leads him down the hall by the hand, that he doesn’t deserve this – not after Mystery was kicked out – but he does his best to convince his uncertain mind that there's still a _huge_ difference between the two of them. And as Arthur had said last night – completely honest – Lewis had never managed to _truly_ hurt him, and now he’d realized he didn’t even _want to_. He was… safe. 

It didn’t feel right, but there was nothing to do but accept it. 


End file.
